It appears the Clippers’ chance to challenge for the title this season is over.
At least, if you ask Kawhi Leonard.
After Thursday’s 115-114 win over the Nuggets, in which Jamal Murray missed a game-tying free throw with less than a second left, Leonard spoke after the game and made some scathing comments about the state of the franchise.
When asked what the Clippers need to do to become contenders, Leonard said, “Just development over time. I think it’s over now. It’s a quarter of the way through the season.”
He later added, “But every day is a day to grow. A day to learn and get better. So we just have to keep looking over time and see in two weeks if we get better and see what happens from there.”
It’s hard to fault Leonard’s stance on this issue considering what happened at the NBA trade deadline.
In the league’s most stunning move, the Clippers traded all-NBA guard James Harden to Cleveland for guard Darius Garland. They then shipped star center Ivica Zubac (and Kobe Brown) to Indiana for guard Bennedict Mathurin, big man Isaiah Jackson and three draft picks.
Garland is currently out while he recovers from a toe injury and his return status is TBD.
It was an interesting move by the Clippers front office to deviate from the previous version of the team.
After a horrific start that saw them at 6-21 at one point, LA has become one of the hottest teams in the league. Since mid-December – and heading into Friday’s game against the Lakers – the Clippers are 21-7 and in 9th place in the Western Conference standings, just 1.5 games behind Golden State in eighth place.
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